Olympic Athletic Center of Athens (OAKA)

The Olympic Athletic Center of Athens (Ο.Α.Κ.Α.) took its name from the winner of the 1896 Marathon Spyros Louis, a resident of the Municipality of Amarousion. The area of 1,000 acres, where it is located, belongs administratively to the Municipality of Amarousion. The foundation stone of O.A.K.A. was laid January 8, 1980, and two years later, on September 6, 1982, the opening day of the 13th European Athletics Championship, the Athens Olympic Athletic Centre was inaugurated. In the following years, around the Central Olympic Stadium, the Olympic Velodrome (opened in 1991), the Olympic Aquatic Center (1991), the Olympic Indoor Sports Center (1995), the Olympic Tennis Center (2004) and all the other auxiliary sports facilities were added. The new Olympic Athletic Center of Athens was a construction and technological masterpiece, which even today, with the addition of Santiago Calatrava's regeneration project, is an integral part of the developing area of the northern suburbs of Athens. More specifically, the facilities of O.A.K.A. are: • The Olympic Stadium that has a football stadium with a capacity of 71,030 spectators and a 400m track with 8 lanes and steeple lanes and a 100m track with 9 lanes. • The Olympic Velodrome, which has a central entrance on Spyros Louis Avenue, has a 250-space fenced parking lot, with a coverage of 4,000 sq.m. and a capacity of 5,000 seats. • The Olympic Aquatic Center which has two modern swimming pools, one outdoor and one indoor, in an area of 70 acres. • The Olympic Indoor Sports Center that includes an indoor basketball court, which was built on six levels with a 25.5 x 44.5m playing field and a stadium capacity of 18,500 spectators. • The Olympic Tennis Center which has the Main Court with a capacity of 8,000 seats and Court 1 with a capacity of 4,000 seats.